North East RadioWatch: November 14, 1999

Back from Seattle, and Drying Out!

While your editors were chasing rainbows on Vashon Island, Washington
(really -- just keep reading!), the radio dial back home obligingly
quieted to a dull roar. Here's what happened while we were getting
rained on:

In MAINE, a judge has ruled against Saga Communications in its
attempt to silence former WMGX morning host Lori Voornas. Saga tried
to get a temporary restraining order to prevent Voornas from sending
letters to advertisers on Citadel letterhead promising a new morning
show for an unnamed Citadel station, but the judge declined to issue
such an order, saying it's not clear Voornas violated the terms of her
non-compete by writing the letters. The non-compete is up February
28; NERW expects to hear a well-rested Voornas on one of the former
Fuller-Jeffrey stations in the Citadel group (WCLZ? WCYY?) on Leap
Day.

A correction: we were living in the past when we called Maine's public
broadcaster "MPBN." The preferred term now is "MPBC," or, at least
for the TV side, "Maine PBS."

There's a new general manager for Vox's Concord, NEW HAMPSHIRE
group. Paul Fuller takes over at WKXL AM-FM, WRCI/WNHI, and WJYY,
after years as sales manager at crosstown WNNH.

The big news in MASSACHUSETTS is Sunday night's format change at WARE
(1250 Ware), as Mega Broadcasting and Spanish programming take over
from the oldies. PD/morning voice Gary James and newsguy J.P. Ellery
said their farewells on Friday (11/12); expect the legendary calls to
go as well, leaving WACO-FM in Waco, Texas as the only station in the
U.S. whose calls are exactly the same as the city of license. (NERW
is not interested in hearing from sticklers who would argue that the
city of license for that station should thus be "Wacofm, Texas"!)

Up the road a bit in Athol, there's a new PD at WCAT AM/FM (700/99.9),
as Scott Antonivich moves down from co-owned WHDQ (106.1 Claremont NH)
to turn around the mostly-automated FM.

This just missed the deadline for last week's NERW: The FCC shut down
a pirate in Springfield the first week of November. Radio Unidad
Cristian was running on 94.3 with, says the FCC, "181,100 times the
authorized power." We suppose that means 18.1 kilowatts, which seems
awfully darned high even for a Spanish-language religious pirate.

Out on the Cape, satellite AC WYST (93.5 Harwich Port) has changed
formats to satellite oldies as "Oldies 93.5." Yawn...

Of more interest (at least to DXers) is Bob Bittner's decision to
schedule a DX test from WJIB (740 Cambridge), right in the middle of
the longest night of the year, yet! Tune in to WJIB at midnight,
Monday December 20 (Sunday night into Monday, that is) for what Bob
promises will be "recognizable" music. No word yet on whether Bob
will crank up the full 250 watts for this one; if he does, we're
pretty sure we'll finally be able to log 'JIB at the Rochester
listening post...and you can bet a QSL request will be in the mail
first thing Monday if we do!

On the TV front, WHDH-TV (Channel 7) acting news director Nancy Nydam
can take the "acting" off her name, as she replaces Mark
Berryhill...speaking of which, why no action yet on 1060? (And better
yet, why did the late-evening hang-up call at NERW Central a few weeks
ago show "A LANGER" on the caller ID? Hmmm...)

The dead air rolls on at WBOT (97.7 Brockton), interrupted only by
a very weak (and ID-free) feed of AP All News midweek. Contrary to
what several trades and hobby publications have reported, the station
is not "silent" per se; the carrier has stayed up to support the
subcarriers it contains. One of these days, we'll have something new
to report on this one, but meantime...

Over to CONNECTICUT we go, where the first Clear Channel/AMFM spins
are being announced. It's no surprise that the company is starting
with the weakest AMs, WAVZ (1300 New Haven) and WPOP (1410 Hartford).
We've also heard, but not confirmed, that WHMP AM-FM Northampton and
WWRX Westerly-Providence may be on the sale block as well.

Across the border, then, to NEW YORK, where Ron Van Warmer takes over
PD duties at WDST (100.1 Woodstock). He'd been doing middays at the
(very cool) AAA outlet.

Downstate, Dave Charles is out as morning man and PD at WNSW (1430
Newark NJ), with Ralph Sanabria taking over those duties at Arthur
Liu's standards station.

We hear $600,000 is the price Citadel paid to swap its 1360 frequency
in Binghamton for Paul Titus' 680 facility; Titus tells R&R Online
that he may sell off the 1360 facility once Citadel is done swapping.
(Meantime, it'll take on the WINR calls and standards format now on
680). Contrary to R&R's report, Titus is not the only practicing
dentist running a radio station: up here in Brockport, Dr. George
Wolfe, DDS, runs religious WASB (1590/105.5) and WRSB (1310
Canandaigua). Everybody just say "aaahhhhh"....

Buffalo is mourning one of its best-known polka hosts. "Big Steve"
Krzeminski died Saturday (11/6) at age 54 after an eight-month battle
with cancer. Krzeminski was also a bandleader and accordion player;
he's survived by wife Arlene, two children, and a grandchild.

And one of Rochester's best-known morning hosts is facing two
sexual-harassment suits. Alan Levin, aka "Brother Wease" of WCMF
(96.5), is being sued by former co-host Cindy Pierce, who says his
lewd remarks about her forced her off the air. He's also being sued
by former WCMF account executive Jodi Strada, who says Wease
humiliated her by on-air sexual references.

Speaking of 'CMF, former afternoon guy B.J. Shea is now doing talk at
Seattle's KQBZ (100.7 The Buzz), replacing the Howie Carr show that
used to follow Tom Leykis on tape-delay out there. Of course, we
found this out *after* we left Seattle (there was no on-air promotion
of Shea during the rest of KQBZ's daytime lineup -- Mark & Brian from
KLOS, former MTV VJ Kennedy, and Leykis), but it's at least a good
segue into the radio portion of our last week away:

The trip began in Seattle, where radio consolidation has taken some
strange turns. There are five big owners (plus Salem) in the market,
but no sign so far of some of the usual suspects, including the
mammoth Clear Channel group. Instead, it's Entercom, CBS, the local
Fisher group, Sandusky, and Ackerley, stacking up like this:

ENTERCOM has news-talk KIRO (710), which is almost all local and very
well done; business-news KNWX (770), which is all-satellite with local
news headline inserts; oldies KBSG (97.3 Tacoma/1210 Auburn); rocker
KISW (99.9, with a dinky little overmodulated translator on 99.7
serving a few blocks of West Seattle's Alki Beach); talk KQBZ (100.7);
AAA KMTT (103.7 Tacoma; our favorite station in town); and modern rock
KNDD (107.7). Entercom also handles sales for KING-FM (98.1), which
is owned by a non-profit arts cooperative which maintains its quality
classical format.

CBS has country oldies (by satellite) KRPM (1090; the 50kw facility
that was once big-time KING radio); country KMPS (94.1); country KYCW
(96.5); classic rock KZOK (102.5); and CHR KBKS (106.1 Tacoma).

FISHER owns ABC affiliate KOMO-TV (Channel 4), as well as KOMO
(1000), with a news-talk format; KVI (570) with conservative talk; and
modern AC KPLZ ("Star" 101.5). KOMO-TV has outgrown its old building
next to the Space Needle; a new one is going up just behind it (with
monorail travelers getting a nice peek inside!)

SALEM does various forms of religion on KGNW (820 Burien) and
simulcast KLFE (1590 Seattle)/KKMO (1360 Tacoma), plus conservative
talk on KKOL (1300). Salem also has a CP for KAZJ on 1680, so far
unbuilt.

The rest of the dial: religion on KCIS (630) and KCMS (105.3) from
nearby Edmonds; religion on KBLE (1050); talk for Tacoma on KLAY (1180
Lakewood); Korean-language fare on Jean Suh's KWYZ (1230 Everett) up
north and KSUH (1450 Puyallup) down south; Radio Disney on erstwhile
Kidstar flagship KKDZ (1250); satellite talk on KRKO (1380 Everett);
more talk from across Puget Sound on KITZ (1400 Silverton); urban AC
with a weak signal on simulcast KRIZ (1420) and KYIZ (1620) in Renton
("The Z Twins"); Family Radio religion on KARR (1460 Kirkland); gay
talk radio (really!) on KNTB (1480 Lakewood) and KARO (1490
Bremerton); Spanish on KXPA (1540 Bellevue); and gospel for the Tacoma
area on daytimer KZIZ (1560 Sumner).

On the FM side, jazz and NPR are heard from Tacoma's Pacific
Lutheran University and KPLU (88.5); there's a KAWZ translator on 88.9
that carries from Tacoma north past Everett; Bellevue High School's
KASB is on 89.3; Seattle's Nathan Hale High School does a very
professional, 30-kilowatt CHR job as "C-89" via KNHC (89.5); the high
school in Gig Harbor (across the Tacoma Narrows Bridge) operates KGHP
on 89.9 (with a translator on 104.5 that actually serves downtown Gig
Harbor better than the primary!); Tacoma's University of the Puget
Sound cranks out rap on KUPS (90.1); the University of Washington runs
student station KCMU (90.3) and NPR outlet KUOW (94.9); KSER (90.7
Everett) is the last outpost of the freeform radio that started at the
old KRAB 107.7 before that station was sold years ago; KVTI (90.9
Tacoma) does CHR as "I-91" from Clover Park Technical College; KBCS
(91.3 Bellevue) is a very nice-sounding college station; and KBTC
(91.7 Tacoma) offers "classical rock" from Bates Technical College
(which also runs secondary PBS outlet KBTC-TV on channel 28.) Last
but hardly least is Mercer Island High School's KMIH on 104.5, which
was doing taped replays of weekday shows and legalling on the
half-hour when we caught them as we drove across the island on I-90
Sunday night.

Of course, we had to see all this with our own eyes, so off we set
in the rented NERW-mobile, once we figured out that the reason the
radio was so bad was that the antenna wasn't up!

First stops were the two big TV/FM sites in Seattle itself,
starting with the Capitol Hill site that was apparently once the
studio of KCTS. Today, it has three towers: one for KCTS, KCTS-DT
(41), KUOW and KCMU; one for KSTW; and one for KTWB. The faded "KCTS"
letters can still be seen on the corner of the building.

North of downtown, Queen Anne Hill is crowned by three prominent TV
towers, one for KING-TV, KONG, and KING-DT (48); one down the street
for KOMO-TV and KOMO-DT (38) -- complete with a big "KOMO TV" sign
over the front door; and one right on a commercial stretch of Queen
Anne Avenue for KIRO-TV, KQBZ, and KIRO-DT (39). These towers are so
prominent that they're mentioned in the "things to see" panels atop
the Space Needle!

Down the hill, we encountered the Queen Anne Ave. Ackerley facility
(an anonymous office building), the KCTS palace of a studio building
on the site of the 1962 World's Fair, and KOMO on the other side of
the Space Needle.

More driving the next day took us to the swamp in Bellevue near the
I-90/I-405 interchange that's home to three AM arrays, each with three
towers: KXPA, KIXI, and KSRB, then across the I-90 floating bridge and
past more Seattle studios: the Eastlake Avenue Entercom facility;
KING-TV and KONG on Dexter Avenue, down the street from KTWB and just
up the street from the now-vacant KMPS/KZOK complex (we realized later
that they've moved, with the rest of CBS Seattle, to a new office
building across Dexter from KTWB!); KIRO-TV downtown; KSTW in an
office tower a few blocks away; and the anonymous silvery tower that's
home to Entercom's KISW, KMTT, and KNDD. Urban KRIZ/KYIZ live in an
unsigned building south of downtown that's also home to the city's
black newspaper.

Sunday night ended in Kirkland, at the unpainted and unlit six
towers shared by KARR and the night half of KKDZ.

A rainy Monday found your editors pointing the NERW-mobile towards
the ferry docks in West Seattle, with attempted stops at KKOL and KJR
(easily seen from across the water in downtown Seattle, but hard to
get to amidst the dock gates of West Seattle), a successful visit to
the hilltop tower that's home to KBLE and the daytime half of KKDZ,
and then on to the ferry to Vashon Island.

Vashon, west of Seattle and Tacoma in Puget Sound, is home to all
the biggest Seattle AM signals, starting with KOMO (1000), which
occupies a monumental building larger than most studios! Down the
road, we saw the towers of KGNW (820 Burien), then "KVI Beach," the
Fisher Broadcasting-owned private beach that's crowned by the KVI
(570) tower.

Moving south, we saw the Art Deco building and two towers of KIRO
(710), then brought the car to a crashing halt as the sun emerged,
bringing with it a double rainbow -- and at its end, no pot of gold,
but the three sticks shared by KRPM (1090) and KNWX (770). It was
quite a sight, especially since it would be the last time we'd see the
sun for the rest of the trip!

Monday night found us dining with Phil Bytheway of DecalcoMania and
IRCA fame, enjoying radio chat and seafood before heading north
towards Bellingham and the Canadian border -- but that's a travelogue
for next week's NERW, isn't it?

We'll see you Friday with the week's radio news, plus our exciting,
rain-drenched finale in Bellingham, Vancouver, Victoria, and the
Olympic Peninsula. Join us then, won't you?